iWatt Device Stops Wasted Wattage

California based iWatt has come up with technology that solves a problem you may not even know existed. For many, it is common practice to leave our portable device chargers plugged in, though they may not be charging anything at the time. Most owners of portable phones, cell phones, digital cameras, camcorders etc. don’t think to unplug the charging adapter when their device is fully powered up. Perhaps this is because it isn’t common knowledge that those adapters, even with nothing connected to them, are constantly sucking power from the wall.

It may not seem like those little chargers could be consuming and wasting that much power while sitting unused but iWatt points to numbers that may be surprising. These device chargers that use up power when in standby mode are often referred to as “vampire chargers” and, according to the iWatt, these vampire chargers are consuming more than 100 billion kilowatt hours of electricity annually in the US alone. According to Energy Star, that amounts to $10 billion in annual energy costs.

image via VentureBeat

That wasted energy is said to be enough to power 9.4 million U.S. households which consume, on average, 10,656 kilowatt hours per household per year. iWatt’s new digital technology is designed to try and ease this wasted energy by being integrated into charging adapters so that they are effectively turned off if there is no load on the other end of the wire.